A 3-D finite-element model for computation of temperature profiles and regions of thermal damage during focused ultrasound surgery exposures

Although there have been numerous models implemented for modeling thermal diffusion effects during focused ultrasound surgery (FUS), most have limited themselves to representing simple situations for which analytical solutions and the use of cylindrical geometries sufficed. For modeling single lesion formation and the heating patterns from a single exposure, good results were achieved in comparison with experimental results for predicting lesion size, shape and location. However, these types of approaches are insufficient when considering the heating of multiple sites with FUS exposures when the time interval between exposures is short. In such cases, the heat dissipation patterns from initial exposures in the lesion array formation can play a significant role in the heating patterns for later exposures. Understanding the effects of adjacent lesion formation, such as this, requires a three-dimensional (3-D) representation of the bioheat equation. Thus, we have developed a 3-D finite-element representation for modeling the thermal diffusion effects during FUS exposures in clinically relevant tissue volumes. The strength of this approach over past methods is its ability to represent arbitrarily shaped 3-D situations. Initial simulations have allowed calculation of the temperature distribution as a function of time for adjacent FUS exposures in excised bovine liver, with the individually computed point temperatures comparing favorably with published measurements. In addition to modeling these temperature distributions, the model was implemented in conjunction with an algorithm for calculating the thermal dose as a way of predicting lesion shape. Although used extensively in conventional hyperthermia applications, this thermal dose criterion has only been applied in a limited number of simulations in FUS for comparison with experimental measurements. In this study, simulations were run for focal depths 2 and 3 cm below the surface of pig’s liver, using multiple intensity levels and exposure times. The results also compare favorably to published in vitro experimental measurements, which bodes well for future application to more complex problems, such as the modeling of multiple lesion arrays within complex anatomical geometries.